 Fleetwood Mac Are Lindsey Buckingham and Steve Nicks still breaking up with each other? Say You Will finds the two of them sparring round after round with the gloves off. Maybe they're not talking about each other anymore … but they're breaking up with somebody. What I know is, it's not me for once! I make no apologies for the fact that I love Fleetwood Mac. Through all of my musical phases, there they've been, always around to snuggle when whatever the new thing is fails to satisfy. And I was flummoxed to see, all of a sudden in 2003, a new Fleetwood Mac record. Of course I was curious, as I always am. But who would be in the band this time? For awhile they looked like they were about to turn into the Traveling Wilburys, with new semi-has-beens around for each record. But here they are. They're back. Lindsey, Stevie, Mick, and John. And somehow, they're not only back, but back on track! Say You Will is as good as any of their classic records, picking up where Tango in the Night left off, but minus Christine McVie. Christine is missed, as she always provided sweet tonic to Lindsey's and Stevie's intoxicating but unhealthy swirl of whiskey and cocaine. What is left is basically a duet record that cleans up all the unfinished business from Rumours – it's the post-divorce Double Fantasy, or the adult contemporary Shoot Out the Lights. It's been many years since a Lindsey solo album, and he's stockpiled some great new stuff. "What's the World Coming To" and "Steal Your Heart Away" are two of his finest pure pop moments ever, while "Red Rover" and "Come" get filed under the "He's crazy, but he's fucking great" category that he's been slowly coming to own since Tusk. And Lindsey's obviously been playing him some guitar. "Murrow Turning Over in His Grave" features some of the most genuinely surprising, heart-fluttering, blistering soloing he's ever done. He's always been a crafty guitarist, but here he sounds angry as fuck, like a frayed, high-flung tightrope that's finally snapped. Stevie, though sometimes sounding a bit like a comic Stevie Nicks impersonator (the tone is more strident these days, perhaps for the lack of a septum), brings forth her most inspired music since The Wild Heart and Mirage. Her lyrics have never been better or more honest, and only Stevie could say in the midst of a song about 9/11: "I am a cliff dweller from the old school." So don't worry about there being a 9/11 song on here. It's not what you think. She sings a lot about Nag Champra, and not at all about heroic firefighters. "Say You Will" is the best thing she's done since "Gypsy," and incidentally ends with the best child singing ever recorded. What a perfect chorus! "It always seems to heal the wounds/If I can get you to dance." In my world, this song has already been #1 for three weeks. In the real world … is it even a single? Well, there's the difference again between my world and everyone else's. The album provides all the familliar Fleetwood Mac sonic touchstones and yet moves forward into something fresh. Eighteen songs is a lot, but the album isn't too long … if anything, let Lindsey and Stevie have one CD's worth of a chance to work their shit on out, right? 'Cause how good does it feel to hear those harmonies, you know? It's been too long, and I didn't know how much I really missed 'em. This album is like my father coming home and telling me he loves me.
Review by Diana Barnacle |